I knew it was going to happen eventually, Marvel Studios has announced that they will be brining Brian K Vaughn‘s Runaways to the big screen. Vaughn, best known for the critically acclaimed Y: The Last Man Series (also in some stage of development with DJ Caruso and possibly starring Shia LaBeouf), created Runaways in 2002 with Adrian Alphona, and is also penning the screenplay. It should be noted that Vaughn is also a co-producer and writer for LOST.

The series follows a group of teenagers discover that their parents are an organized group of super villains called The Pride. On the run from their homes, the group bands together and begin a journey of discovery, both of their parents’ origins and of their own inherited powers.

Unlike most other books in the Marvel universe, the individual Runaways story arcs are collected in small, manga-sized trade paperbacks. In 2006, the series won the Harvey Award for best continuing/limited series. Geek god Joss Whedon, a vocal fan of the book, took over the series after Vaughan and Alphona left at issue #24 of the title’s second volume.

Marvel is not ready to set a date for this latest adaptation or the previously announced Ant Man.

When it was announced that D.J. Caruso had signed on to direct a big screen adaptation of Brian K Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man, we speculated that Shia LaBeouf might be playing the lead. Shia had made statements in the past expressing interest in the project. Not only that but DJ Caruso directed him in Disturbia and the upcoming Eagle Eye. So there is a strong connection between the director and star. MTV was able to speak to the director about the possibility, and this is what he said:

“This is funny, but unbeknownst to me: Shia was already chasing this part prior to anything,” Caruso said. “I haven’t talked to him yet about it because he’s off shooting ‘Indiana Jones 4,’ but Shia is the right type and the right personality because you want to have the humor, but you also want to have the seriousness. So we’ll talk about it when we get there.”

It was also revealed that the film version will focus on the first 12 issues of the comic book series, “sort of combining them into a beginning, middle and end. The problem is that even in the first 12, there is so much great stuff, it’s like, what do you leave out? There really isn’t a ticking clock with Yorick, so what we basically did was give him a reason to get from Boston to California in a really short time.”

Y: The Last Man is probably the best non superhero comic book series running today. The story follows Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand, the last two men on Earth. Something (speculated to be a plague) simultaneously kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome – including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm. Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men. Yorick goes on a mission to find his girlfriend Beth, who was on vacation in Australia.

The Y: The Last Man series will end (as planned) with a double sized issue #60 early next year.

Many people say Watchmen, but for me the greatest comic book series of all time is without a doubt, Brian K Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man. A big screen adaptation has been in the works since early 2006. New Line Cinema has finally tapped D.J. Caruso (Disturbia) to direct a film version based on a script by Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye, Disturbia). This is great news since the project had fallen into “development heck.” The hiring of Caruso is interesting because a few months ago it was rumored that Hollywood’s new golden star Shia LaBeouf was interested in starring in the film. And as you know, Caruso directed Shia in Disturbia. Could this be a set up for a big casting announcement at Comi-Con? The Transformers star doesn’t have much (if anything) officially lined up after Indiana Jones 4.

Y: The Last Man follows Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand, the last two men on Earth. Something (speculated to be a plague) simultaneously kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome – including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm. Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men. Yorick goes on a mission to find his girlfriend Beth, who was on vacation in Australia.

The Y: The Last Man series will end (as planned) with a double sized issue #60 early next year.

Brian K. Vaughn wants to direct a feature film, but not the big screen adaptation of his popular Vertigo comic book series Y: The Last Man.

“I would like to direct, but much smaller things, along the lines of something I’ve done in comics where it’s much more personal and I would have complete control over and doesn’t involve a hundred million dollar budget like Y with planes falling out of the sky and people bleeding out of every orifice,” Vaughn told /Film at Wondercon 2007.